U.S. tactics with pirates raise questions

February 25, 2011|DAVID S. CLOUD | Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON -- U.S. negotiators told pirates holding four American hostages off the coast of Somalia that they would not be allowed to go ashore with their captives, U.S. officials said, one of several moves that heightened pressure on the pirates before the hostages were killed Tuesday.

The warning that the U.S. intended to block the pirates from taking the hostages onto Somali soil was communicated early in the four-day standoff as Navy ships shadowed the 58-foot yacht carrying the 19 Somalis and their prisoners, the officials said.

"The thought was, if these guys succeed in getting the hostages to shore we have almost no leverage anymore," said a U.S. defense official.

Several officials agreed to discuss the incident in return for anonymity.

Another official called the decision not to allow the hostages to be taken to Somalia as "nonnegotiable." More than 700 hostages are currently being held on shore by pirates demanding ransom.

Advertisement

It remains a mystery what caused the outbreak of gunfire aboard the yacht that resulted in the shooting deaths of the two couples, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle of Seattle. U.S. officials have played down the possibility that their negotiating tactics may have contributed to the deadly outcome.

Experts in hostage negotiations endorsed the decision to block the Americans from being taken off the yacht, saying it is always important in such situations not to let hostages be moved to a new location where recovering them would be more difficult.

"One of the goals is always to contain a situation as best you can," said Stephen Romano, a retired FBI hostage negotiator.

But several experts questioned whether the U.S. negotiators went too far in boxing in the pirates, which raised tension in an already fraught situation. An alternative might have been for the Navy not to tell the pirates that it intended to prevent the hostages from being removed.

"You never want to say no to a hostage-taker," said Dan O'Shea, a former Navy Seal who was a hostage negotiator at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2004 to 2006. "They are already on edge. It wouldn't take a lot to put somebody over the edge."

Along with the warning that they would be blocked from moving the hostages, the U.S. negotiators, including a representative from the FBI, detained two of the Somalis who came aboard the USS Sterett to discuss a resolution of the crisis. The U.S. decided that the two pirates were "not serious" about negotiating and refused to permit them to return to the yacht, U.S. officials said.